A global reinsurance broker with offices in Bermuda is targeting expansion in the US.

JLT Towers Re — soon to change its name to JLT Re — said it would increase its presence in America through recruitment and buy-ups of other companies.

And CEO Mike Reynolds, speaking from the reinsurance Rendez-Vous event in Monte Carlo, said that speciality lines of business offered good growth opportunities.

Mr Reynolds added: “We are absolutely committed to building and investing in our business in the US.”

And he pledged to invest heavily in analytics for the $100 million North American business.

Mr Reynolds, tipped as candidate to succeed JLT group CEO Dominic Burke when he steps down, added that the relatively fragmented US market made it ideal for expansion.

The group launched JLT Speciality Insurance Services last month by merging JLT Speciality and Lloyd & Partners as part of the US growth strategy — which is expected to result in a net $81 million investment between 2015-17.

The rebranding to JLT Re, which will take effect at the start of next month, comes less than a year after JLT Re took over Towers Watson’s reinsurance broking business to become the fourth largest reinsurance broker.

Mr Reynolds said: “Putting these two businesses together put us in a slightly different space and has opened up new opportunities for us — there’s no question about that.

“JLT Re absolutely has a seat at the table. One and one really does make three.”

And he said that the market appeared to support an alternative to the current big three brokers.

Mr Reynolds added that was increased demand for alternative structures like stop losses, aggregates and multi-class products, in line with the trend to centralised reinsurance buying.

And he questioned the value of multi-line broker facilities to insured entities.

Mr Reynolds said: “Commoditisation of the market — we don’t believe that’s the right way to go.

“Some of these very large facilities — we can’t see how the client is deriving benefit from them.”

JLT, registered in London, operates more than 100 offices in 40 countries and employs nearly 10,000 people around the globe.